Latest / Crossroad Conversations with the Lewis Brothers / Ep.52 - 52 Weeks of Leadership: Lessons Learned & What’s Next

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Ep.52 - 52 Weeks of Leadership: Lessons Learned & What’s Next · Crossroad Conversations with the Lewis Brothers

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: That's something I've learned later on in my career and it's beneficial for everybody.
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: You've got to remember I don't care if you have five employees, 50 employees or 500 employees.
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: You've got to think about the multiplication factor and you're the leader and you're setting the pace for the rest of the team.
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: So even if you have to take an hour out of your day to reset, to bring a better version of you, then you're going to get a multiplication factor of a five, a 50, a 500 because of a better version and how you're rising the tide up.
• 0:30
  Speaker 1: Hey, everyone, welcome to Crossroad Conversations with the Lewis Brothers, where we aim to share real stories about running a successful family business, working through adversity and pouring back into the community.
• 0:43
  Speaker 1: That keeps our door open.
• 0:44
  Speaker 1: We're your hosts, matt, shelby and Taylor, and we bring you relevant local business advice and automotive insights that are sure to change the way you look at running a business and maybe even throw in a plug for you to do business with us.
• 0:57
  Speaker 1: Welcome back to Crossroad Conversations with Matt and Taylor.
• 1:01
  Speaker 1: Today.
• 1:02
  Speaker 1: Shelby's out getting trained up somewhere.
• 1:05
  Speaker 1: So we're piloting this sucker and this episode is 52 Weeks of Leadership.
• 1:10
  Speaker 1: We celebrate one year of doing the podcast.
• 1:14
  Speaker 1: 52 weeks, that's a whole year, an entire year of just pouring out our lessons.
• 1:18
  Speaker 1: You know what I mean, that we've learned along the way, hopefully to help you out there as a business owner.
• 1:25
  Speaker 1: Help with whatever you're going through in business that's our goal.
• 1:28
  Speaker 1: That's our goal, and if you buy a car from us, that's a great byproduct, but we want to help you be able to be more successful in your business.
• 1:35
  Speaker 1: So we'll talk about 52 years of leadership.
• 1:37
  Speaker 1: Taylor and I are going to break down, talk about the biggest leadership lessons we've learned over the past 12 months from podcast conversations, business challenges and personal growth, and then we're also going to kind of look ahead what we're going to do this next year on leaders, what we're going to bring to you guys, how we're going to innovate, our discipline and always focusing on putting people first.
• 2:00
  Speaker 2: Absolutely.
• 2:00
  Speaker 2: That was big.
• 2:01
  Speaker 2: Hey, take a quick minute recap.
• 2:03
  Speaker 2: Last week, episode 51.
• 2:04
  Speaker 2: Shut up and listen.
• 2:05
  Speaker 2: It's so simple, it's really good to go into, but this is the easiest way to remember.
• 2:09
  Speaker 2: Two ears, one mouth.
• 2:11
  Speaker 2: The art of listening is a leader.
• 2:12
  Speaker 2: It is so hard to do, but if you can master that, oh you'll catapult.
• 2:19
  Speaker 2: You'll catapult so big there.
• 2:21
  Speaker 2: Hey, always check us out at lewissuperstorecom and crossroadsconversationpodcastcom to get all the relevant content we talk about.
• 2:29
  Speaker 1: Hey, what did you drive today?
• 2:31
  Speaker 1: I'm going to take a different angle here too.
• 2:33
  Speaker 1: We always talk about new vehicles, whether it's a Mustang or F-150 or Wrangler or a Grand Wagoneer or the Maverick.
• 2:39
  Speaker 1: We sell a lot of used vehicles, yes, you know, and we forget to talk about that.
• 2:45
  Speaker 1: In fact, we sell more used vehicles than new vehicles yes you know, one of the metrics we look at in our business is our new to used ratio.
• 2:52
  Speaker 1: How many new vehicles do you sell to every one used vehicle?
• 2:56
  Speaker 1: And on a normal month, when you put it all in one pot and we look at the metrics and the facts, we run about 0.8.
• 3:02
  Speaker 1: So that means for every one used vehicle we sell, we sell 0.8.
• 3:09
  Speaker 1: And you're like 0.8,.
• 3:09
  Speaker 1: What does that mean?
• 3:10
  Speaker 1: All right, let me scale this for you.
• 3:11
  Speaker 1: All right, for every 100 used vehicles we sell, we sell 80 new vehicles.
• 3:16
  Speaker 1: That's our ratio.
• 3:18
  Speaker 1: Now I'm going to go a little bit deeper than that, just to let everybody know, because they come to us looking for a pre-owned Ford or pre-owned Jeep or Ram or Dodge or Chrysler, but they don't necessarily think, oh, they're going to have a Honda, they're going to have a Subaru, they're going to have a GMC, they're going to have a Hyundai, whatever it may be.
• 3:37
  Speaker 1: Do you know?
• 3:38
  Speaker 1: You know this, but I'll tell you that every single week, when we look at our fresh trades, we normally lend.
• 3:44
  Speaker 1: 55% to 60% of our trade-ins are non-core products.
• 3:49
  Speaker 1: Yes, that means it's not a Ford, it's not a Chrysler, dodge, jeep or Ram.
• 3:58
  Speaker 1: So we're constantly trading for Subarus and GMCs and Yukons and Tahos and whatever else it may be.
• 4:00
  Speaker 1: So, no matter what you're looking for and I think that's really helped when we came out with our lewis guarantee, oh yeah, because it didn't matter the maker model, if it was a toyota or a honda, we still slapped that 36, that five year 60 on it.
• 4:12
  Speaker 1: Yeah, and the biggest thing out there is it's true term, true mileage, true term, true mileage and real deal.
• 4:21
  Speaker 2: I love that of going into so real deal of whatever the miles are, it starts from today of your day to purchase, yes, of a 5-year, 60-year, a 3-year, 36-year or a 6-6.
• 4:29
  Speaker 2: And we really work hard.
• 4:31
  Speaker 2: You know, over here at our pre-owned building Supercenter that's right next to our Ford and CDJR, I was walking through with our guys this morning I'm like, hey, I love Ford vehicles, just like the next guy in CDJR.
• 4:43
  Speaker 2: I said, put some Toyotas and Subarus.
• 4:46
  Speaker 2: And they said, well, I just thought the Ford and I said I know I love that product.
• 4:51
  Speaker 2: But I said everyone else has to be able to see what we have.
• 4:53
  Speaker 2: So that's been and we see it more times than not that people come in and they don't know that we have the other.
• 5:01
  Speaker 2: They love us, they love doing business with us, but they don't come and look for it.
• 5:10
  Speaker 2: So, yes, we do have different makes and models.
• 5:11
  Speaker 1: Yes, the lewis guarantee still is covered on those and, yes, we would love to sell you those.
• 5:13
  Speaker 1: Another quick fact for you because I love talking about facts is we acquire now this is either by a trade-in or you've heard us talking about off the road purchases we acquire over 70 fresh used vehicles every single week, every single week, every week.
• 5:29
  Speaker 1: So if you were here not yesterday, but a Monday a week ago, from yesterday we've got at least 70 more vehicles that you didn't even see.
• 5:38
  Speaker 1: And we tell our salespeople to tell our customers that, because we've got a lot of customers that will say, hey, we'd love to do business with you, we love what you do with the community, but you just don't have quite the right fit I'm looking for, hey, if you'll just wait a week, I'll have 70 more to pick from.
• 5:52
  Speaker 1: Just hang on that, that's a big deal, that, that that factory turns really quick.
• 5:56
  Speaker 1: So if you're looking for a used vehicle, we are a specialist in that area as well.
• 6:00
  Speaker 1: We have it.
• 6:01
  Speaker 2: We have every different array of it, so please always don't hesitate to reach out.
• 6:05
  Speaker 2: So, diving in there the lessons we didn't expect to learn this year.
• 6:09
  Speaker 2: Ooh, that one's really big because it makes you sit and think of.
• 6:14
  Speaker 2: Sometimes a lot of times, whenever something comes along, you may bury it because it wasn't something you were expecting to encounter whenever you're going along.
• 6:23
  Speaker 2: But of going to that, reflecting on the podcast, what has this done business-wise, helping us build, kind of go through that.
• 6:33
  Speaker 1: I'm going to start with a really basic one here, and this is probably not what you thought I was going to say and not what the audience is going to say, but I'm going to say the podcast itself has helped us, three brothers, designate a minimum of an hour a week where we can reflect on what happened in the business, and y'all that don't know us personally.
• 6:55
  Speaker 1: We work really hard and like we just grind out and a lot of times we don't slow down to communicate with each other unless we've got an issue or a process we need to talk about.
• 7:09
  Speaker 1: We very rarely take the time to reflect on successes and processes.
• 7:14
  Speaker 1: So one thing that the podcast has done, as is forced a platform, you know, for us and then to everybody else out there to be able to talk about.
• 7:23
  Speaker 1: Here's what we did, here's how we overcame that, oh yeah, and then put it there for our team to see and then for everybody else to see as well.
• 7:31
  Speaker 2: You know what I love about that?
• 7:32
  Speaker 2: We can go back and kind of park on that.
• 7:34
  Speaker 2: Go back a year and one of y'all had said hey, listen, because we are very involved in our business every single day and we don't micromanage, but we want to be hands-on and we want to be a problem solver.
• 7:48
  Speaker 2: You know what's happened in this year's time of employees reaching out during this time.
• 7:55
  Speaker 2: They know we're on the podcast and guess what?
• 7:58
  Speaker 2: The building didn't catch on fire.
• 8:00
  Speaker 2: We've grown so much because we've been able to step out and communicate and reflect and talk and host other people and build and grow that you have to know as a business owner Take the time, set it aside and build.
• 8:17
  Speaker 2: If the building's going to catch on fire, you need to first look at your personnel that are in place there, but know that you have to take that time to be able to build and grow.
• 8:29
  Speaker 1: I can remember I don't know if it's the first or the second podcast.
• 8:32
  Speaker 1: We all sat in the room it's probably the second one, because the first one our phones probably were blowing up.
• 8:36
  Speaker 1: The second one and it was like it wasn't silence, it's go put your phone on privacy, do not.
• 8:42
  Speaker 1: So you can't even it.
• 8:43
  Speaker 1: And we kind of all looked at each other and we did it.
• 8:46
  Speaker 1: Yeah, we did it.
• 8:47
  Speaker 1: And then it was like, okay, we got to take it off, do not disturb, figure out what all happened.
• 8:52
  Speaker 1: And then the next week it got a little easier.
• 8:54
  Speaker 1: The next week it got a little easier.
• 8:56
  Speaker 1: And then now I don't have as many alerts when I turn it back on after the podcast.
• 9:01
  Speaker 1: You know, a year ago the whole screen would have been full of alerts, but now I don't have that.
• 9:08
  Speaker 1: And that's a great point you bring up is by these small segments it's empowered others to go.
• 9:15
  Speaker 1: Hey, no, you can make that decision.
• 9:16
  Speaker 1: Yes, you know, you're not making a decision to sell the building or buy a building.
• 9:19
  Speaker 1: No, you're making the decision on what to tell the people with the toilet paper.
• 9:23
  Speaker 2: Yep, you, you're making the decision on what to tell the people with the toilet paper.
• 9:24
  Speaker 1: Yep, when you reflect back you're kind of laughing.
• 9:27
  Speaker 1: It's like, well, yeah, somebody else can unlock the storage cabinet.
• 9:30
  Speaker 1: Yes, it's okay.
• 9:32
  Speaker 2: Not only did that happen, whenever we realized that we empowered other people.
• 9:36
  Speaker 2: Whenever we sit in here and we talk about this a lot, a lot of ideas that we share with each other, we'll get a look from each other sometimes, and that's all that we need of I'm gonna bury that that wasn't a good idea, but of talking through it and hearing more voicing it out it makes sense or it doesn't make sense, and that helps us move forward with it.
• 9:56
  Speaker 1: So I think in in to some of y'all that might seem really simple and like whoa, I can't believe y'all didn't do that.
• 10:02
  Speaker 1: You got to realize like there there's only a 10 year period between me and Taylor and Shelby's, right in the middle at the five, and we grew up doing stuff together.
• 10:12
  Speaker 1: Our family's really close.
• 10:13
  Speaker 1: We've always had projects we've worked on outside of the business.
• 10:16
  Speaker 1: So so you get in sync where you can almost read each other's mind and you know what to expect.
• 10:23
  Speaker 1: You know if, you know if somebody's doing this, then you need to work on this part to keep it going forward and you'll never see, even at a family event, that like we're sitting around, we're either helping cook or we're doing the dishes, or we're getting the boat ready or we're doing this like.
• 10:36
  Speaker 1: So we've always been in that flow.
• 10:38
  Speaker 1: When you get in that flow, it it kind of squashes taking the time to communicate about what went really good and that's what had happened in our career.
• 10:47
  Speaker 1: It was still progressing, positive, but we weren't communicating and sharing with everybody else our management team that is in sync, okay of how we did that and how we were successful and how we adjusted and how we did fail and we picked it up and went from there.
• 11:04
  Speaker 1: So that's got to be and I know we start off with a bang there but that has got to be the number one takeaway for me from this podcast yeah, that's been so good and to my part, that I really loved and we were talking a little before the podcast about this.
• 11:19
  Speaker 2: But so many people I'm not talking about my mom or grandmother or anyone else that would they would follow along and do anything else, but people outside of our business we didn't know about that.
• 11:31
  Speaker 2: It started to influence.
• 11:33
  Speaker 1: I think so and I think no matter if I'm at a chamber event or a leadership event or if we're out in the community talking to to business leaders.
• 11:41
  Speaker 1: Now I've had some friends that have listened to it and they're like, oh, that's really good, y'all do a good job on that, and I appreciate that and please don't stop listening, okay.
• 11:49
  Speaker 1: But then what really makes me excited for this time we invested is when we take a small business owner that's dealing with a difficult employee or advertising or cash flow or inventory turn, or we could go all on down the list and they say that episode right there, that really helped me, that gave me a different perspective.
• 12:09
  Speaker 1: And we understand that because we've grown now where we have different layers of management.
• 12:15
  Speaker 1: But forever, you know, we were so in the weeds growing our business that it was really hard to see the trees because we were in the forest, yes, and we had to go to training outside or listen to this person or that person just to get some fresh ideas and a new perspective on how to move our business forward.
• 12:34
  Speaker 2: Yeah, that's been really good.
• 12:36
  Speaker 2: I mean, I think those lessons were definitely pivotal of what has helped the podcast grow and then us grow as business owners, brothers, everything else moving forward and helping continuing to grow this generational business.
• 12:49
  Speaker 2: Yeah, so that's been really good.
• 12:51
  Speaker 2: This next question here what year did the first podcast officially launch?
• 12:58
  Speaker 2: Okay, see if you can dial this one in here.
• 13:02
  Speaker 2: I got a multiple choice because I like those a 2004, a 1999, 2010 or 2013?
• 13:09
  Speaker 2: Who?
• 13:12
  Speaker 1: I would say I don't know.
• 13:14
  Speaker 1: Um, it's usually earlier than you think it is.
• 13:17
  Speaker 1: I don't really remember about podcast till the.
• 13:20
  Speaker 1: You know really 15 to 20.
• 13:23
  Speaker 1: You know, seems that you know really 15 to 20,.
• 13:25
  Speaker 1: You know, seems that.
• 13:25
  Speaker 1: You know.
• 13:26
  Speaker 1: I really started diving in a little bit before COVID there.
• 13:28
  Speaker 1: I would you know if I didn't see the answer on the screen right here, I probably would have guessed like 13.
• 13:34
  Speaker 2: That's what I was thinking, because you got to think late 2008, 9, 10 is when iPhones really came out, and so it started coming on their podcast app, because even YouTube at that point wasn't really big where people could stream and do all that.
• 13:50
  Speaker 2: So I would have thought that, but it's 2004.
• 13:53
  Speaker 2: Yeah, 2004,.
• 13:55
  Speaker 2: So that probably was, moreover, of like a radio show that had kind of morphed over into that.
• 14:02
  Speaker 2: Sure, they have grown so much there's a podcast about everything there, you bet.
• 14:09
  Speaker 1: I think one of the things I want to talk about here, because we're talking about leadership, is life lessons that leadership has taught me.
• 14:17
  Speaker 1: Yeah, and I'm going to say not early in my leadership career, but as we've grown, and what I'm going to say here you've heard us talk about it on almost every podcast Leadership has really taught me to be patient, consistent and a better listener.
• 14:34
  Speaker 1: If I put those three out there of patient, you have to give something new time to grow.
• 14:43
  Speaker 1: Okay, you got to stay consistent with it.
• 14:46
  Speaker 1: It's not a hey, let's do it one day and then give up.
• 14:49
  Speaker 1: Okay, you have to realize you're creating new habit, not just for yourself, but for your entire team.
• 14:54
  Speaker 1: Okay, so you're going to be patient with them because they're going to screw up, especially in stressful moments.
• 14:59
  Speaker 1: They're going to go back to their old habits.
• 15:01
  Speaker 1: You got to stay consistent to create the new habit.
• 15:04
  Speaker 1: And then you got to be a really good listener to be able to adjust and identify issues and areas within your business.
• 15:13
  Speaker 2: Yes, you do, you do.
• 15:15
  Speaker 2: I love that, what it is done.
• 15:18
  Speaker 2: Obviously, of the patience is that's the number one thing and and I've seen it bleed over into others around me, so much that the fact that they're coming to me and Taylor, you've taught me so much but the number one thing is I don't have to overreact, I don't have to fly off the handle, I don't have to handle it the way that I thought I had to, because you've done this, or x, y or Z, so that's been really big.
• 15:46
  Speaker 1: I, and I know you've gotten the same response, um, from people, whether it's our employees or outside, that every once in a while they'll say I just don't know how you're so calm and you don't get rattled with all that going on.
• 15:59
  Speaker 1: Yes, and I would say I haven't always been that way.
• 16:03
  Speaker 1: No, and I would say I haven't always been that way, and you know, one of the things that happens is once something happens, once and you overreact emotionally to it, and then you reflect back on it a couple of days later and you see it really wasn't that big of a deal.
• 16:17
  Speaker 1: No, I wasted energy, I wound up the rest of my team, I distracted myself from what I was doing.
• 16:24
  Speaker 1: I should have just let that calm down and then go from there.
• 16:29
  Speaker 1: So people ask me that and I simply respond to them.
• 16:33
  Speaker 1: I'm like once I got to a place in my head where I ran situations through filters and I mentally had to go through these steps.
• 16:42
  Speaker 1: Is, create filters in your mind before you react.
• 16:46
  Speaker 1: Yes, and if you'll create those filters and one of mine is to at least pause and think about it so I'll shut down the front part of my brain that just wants to react.
• 16:56
  Speaker 1: You know, the chimpanzee part.
• 16:57
  Speaker 1: So then I can get the logical part of my brain to take over.
• 17:01
  Speaker 1: Ok, I have to pause.
• 17:04
  Speaker 1: That's the only way that you get the logical part of your brain to take over.
• 17:06
  Speaker 1: Okay, I have to pause.
• 17:06
  Speaker 1: That's the only way that you get the logical part of your brain engaged.
• 17:09
  Speaker 1: Then I could think clearly, logically, which is what my team needed.
• 17:13
  Speaker 1: We weren't in battle okay we weren't on the front line reloading the gun, um, so that really assisted me.
• 17:21
  Speaker 1: So then I'll walk people through that.
• 17:22
  Speaker 1: I just I want you to just pause next time.
• 17:25
  Speaker 1: And then the second thing is I always want you to make sure to gather all the information from both sides before making any type of opinion or getting emotion.
• 17:34
  Speaker 1: Now we all type a personalities.
• 17:37
  Speaker 1: We want to get things done, address it, move on, yep.
• 17:40
  Speaker 1: The caveat of that is, if we just take one side of the story, 50 percent of the time we're going to react wrong.
• 17:47
  Speaker 1: We just are.
• 17:48
  Speaker 1: Yes, you know, and we might make a mistake with a customer who's the one that keeps our business going, or an employee the one that takes care of all of our customers that keeps our business going.
• 17:58
  Speaker 1: So one of those two we're going to make a mistake with.
• 18:01
  Speaker 1: And the way we don't make that mistake is we pause.
• 18:04
  Speaker 1: I don't have to make the decision right that second.
• 18:06
  Speaker 1: I go gather all the information, then I can make an educated decision.
• 18:13
  Speaker 2: You know the thing I love about filters Think of it this way that it's like a backstop as well, because we're human and myself even is calm-tempered, everything I am, and myself even is calm tempered, everything I am.
• 18:29
  Speaker 2: I'll find myself in situations where my first level hits per se a rev limiter, and then my second filter is like whoa, pull back.
• 18:33
  Speaker 2: I haven't said anything that made me fly off the handle, but I internally know, hey, I'm starting to get toward the top of this.
• 18:41
  Speaker 2: I need to reset real quick.
• 18:42
  Speaker 2: And you can reset having multiple layers of filters and no one on your team ever knows any differently, because you have it all in line where it needs to be absolutely that's so good and you know you're hitting on all cylinders when you've worked through x amount of situations in a day and nobody even knew.
• 19:04
  Speaker 1: Okay, and it wasn't that nobody even knew because you went, went to the golf course or you left for the day it's because you paused.
• 19:10
  Speaker 1: You walked around the lot, okay, or you did this or you did that to be able to let yourself calm, running through the filter and then react yeah, uh, hey guys, if you guys will get just that out of the podcast, I promise you you'll be above everybody else, because I tell you that most leaders out there react emotionally.
• 19:33
  Speaker 1: Most leaders out there lead by fear instead of by taking the time to pause, collect the information and walk somebody through a situation they're going through.
• 19:44
  Speaker 1: So if you'll just pause, put your emotions to the side and quit leading by fear, you will beat 90 of your competition out there, if not 99 with ease, not even breaking a sweat.
• 19:56
  Speaker 1: So that's, it's really plus.
• 19:58
  Speaker 1: Your doctor will say you're in better health because your blood pressure will go down and everything else, because you're not just tense, blowing the top off the kettle every second, every single time.
• 20:07
  Speaker 1: Hey, so the next part, the hard truths we keep bumping into.
• 20:11
  Speaker 1: You know what I mean, and in this one, my mind's now going here of like, oh man, this continues to come up and it's part of it, it's part of, so let's just start off with a bang here.
• 20:24
  Speaker 1: Leadership can be lonely.
• 20:26
  Speaker 1: It is and it's.
• 20:28
  Speaker 1: I think it's one of those things that you probably read a quote or you saw an image online about the guy standing on top of the mountain and he's by himself up there and you're like, yeah, yeah, yeah, it doesn't resonate till you're there.
• 20:42
  Speaker 1: And when you're there and the farther you go up, there's a whole lot less.
• 20:49
  Speaker 2: And they, you don't realize that going up and you aspire to continue to grow and you want to be in the middle of it.
• 20:58
  Speaker 2: And then you, while you're in the middle of it, you want to grow up, to be to the next level and doing more tasks and have more responsibility and have less people that are around you every single day.
• 21:10
  Speaker 2: But as it continues to move up and you're farther along than I am, but I can even look back of even five years ago that I wasn't.
• 21:19
  Speaker 2: I was.
• 21:20
  Speaker 2: I've always been worried about, obviously, the process or being in the family.
• 21:23
  Speaker 2: But even looking back five years ago of where I'm currently at now, that it was way more minute and I was focused more so on my own productivity, sure, and not my whole teams.
• 21:37
  Speaker 2: It's crazy how it changes and there's a whole lot of good.
• 21:40
  Speaker 2: Don't let me make this sound bad, yeah, but oh yeah, you look up and that comes a lot whenever you're the one taking all the heat and there's no one else to be able to take it, because this is the man in charge right here.
• 21:55
  Speaker 2: So, yes, my team's really good about not first saying dumping the fire of hey, go talk to him, but whenever it gets to that point there's no one else that can take it except you, so that, uh, that's true in some aspects.
• 22:11
  Speaker 1: I want to talk about a couple things here, like let's first talk about well, we'll talk about this second.
• 22:15
  Speaker 1: Let me first talk about.
• 22:17
  Speaker 1: We all go through what you're talking about as far as having a heated situation yes, a tough day, being punched in the face multiple times throughout the day, customers taking anger out, employees taking anger out out.
• 22:35
  Speaker 1: Most of the time it has nothing to do with our business.
• 22:37
  Speaker 1: You know, an employee's going through something at their house.
• 22:41
  Speaker 1: A a customer is then running late for this or that and they ran over something in the road and it's it's our fault, but we're the one filtering all that when we just lost an employee.
• 22:54
  Speaker 1: That was a key position, and now we're trying to figure out how to do that, how to bridge all the gap, like all this is on.
• 23:00
  Speaker 1: That's it.
• 23:01
  Speaker 1: We've been raised to not pour any of that out, especially to anybody below us.
• 23:09
  Speaker 1: So then you've built up all this inside of you and some of y'all are resonating as I'm going through this.
• 23:15
  Speaker 1: You're going yeah, brother, you're talking to me.
• 23:16
  Speaker 1: Yep, you're like who do I talk to about this?
• 23:20
  Speaker 1: You know what I mean and you know, fortunately we don't do it very often, but fortunately then we'll just we'll talk to each other about that.
• 23:28
  Speaker 1: No, because the one thing that's that this dangerous to do here is to go home and just constantly be dumping that on your spouse.
• 23:36
  Speaker 1: Now you got to be real and it can't just always be roses and it's perfect, but at the same time, you got to filter that.
• 23:46
  Speaker 1: Some you do, and I tell employees that too is like if you go home and complain all the time, all of a sudden, your largest support, which is, is your spouse at home, or maybe it's a family member, a friend or whoever.
• 23:59
  Speaker 1: If all they're hearing is the negative all the time, they're going to be telling you to shift gears and look for a different career.
• 24:06
  Speaker 1: Oh yeah, and really it's not all bad, you're just needing to unload that.
• 24:11
  Speaker 1: So I guess let me land the plane here is you've got to have some type of outlet, but you just need to know who you can trust when you talk to about that, and it doesn't need to be somebody that's not at at least your level or higher, you know.
• 24:30
  Speaker 1: Yeah, that's just, that's really important that's a tough one.
• 24:33
  Speaker 2: That is, that is very, very tough and not something you love to always look at and park on or anything else, but it is one of the aspects that comes with the responsibility it really does.
• 24:44
  Speaker 1: Okay, now let's talk about the second part of this, about the lonely part, and this is really your circle of influence.
• 24:49
  Speaker 1: Yeah, all right.
• 24:50
  Speaker 1: So let's start of when you think about your circle of influence and y'all have all heard this is you know, you show me the five closest people around you and you'll become an average of those five.
• 24:59
  Speaker 1: Now, throughout your career, those five people should change.
• 25:03
  Speaker 1: Yep, okay, should change.
• 25:05
  Speaker 1: I'm not talking about friending and unfriending people on social media, sure.
• 25:08
  Speaker 1: I'm talking about people that pull you, pour into that you'll actually tell stuff to and you're not just putting all the happy stuff on Facebook and like your life's perfect.
• 25:18
  Speaker 1: I mean real deal.
• 25:19
  Speaker 1: But the five closest people to me during high school and then during college and then when I was in sales and then sales manager, those have changed.
• 25:29
  Speaker 1: Now some of those people are still my friends, but they're not the ones that I'm pouring into.
• 25:35
  Speaker 1: About insurance, changes with business you know my college buddy that we hang out and play pool together.
• 25:41
  Speaker 1: We're not talking about insurance.
• 25:43
  Speaker 1: Unless he's a business owner too, we're going through that.
• 25:45
  Speaker 1: Okay, my buddy from high school is doing this or that.
• 25:48
  Speaker 1: We're not talking about hr issues, you know.
• 25:51
  Speaker 1: So that changes.
• 25:52
  Speaker 1: And I think the point there is, if you haven't changed your circle of influence right there, one, you've got the wrong group.
• 26:00
  Speaker 1: You got to realize pruning has to happen to grow.
• 26:03
  Speaker 1: It does you know.
• 26:04
  Speaker 1: That doesn't mean you're not their friend anymore, it just means you continue to change that.
• 26:08
  Speaker 1: But you can find yourself in this trap, especially when you work in a profession like we do, that we work a whole lot.
• 26:15
  Speaker 1: Not only do we work a whole lot, we're in the retail business and y'all that are out there in the retail business can relate to this.
• 26:20
  Speaker 1: We're open when everybody else is closed.
• 26:23
  Speaker 1: Why?
• 26:23
  Speaker 1: Because they've got to be off work to come buy a car from us.
• 26:26
  Speaker 1: So, like Labor Day weekend's coming up, you know we'll be open.
• 26:29
  Speaker 1: Then you know Memorial'll be open.
• 26:30
  Speaker 1: Then you know Memorial, we were open.
• 26:33
  Speaker 1: Then you know we're open around the holidays, so on and so forth.
• 26:35
  Speaker 1: So that removes a whole lot of extracurricular groups out there that you can connect with.
• 26:46
  Speaker 1: But it's important and I'm now getting better at going.
• 26:55
  Speaker 1: Hey, I need to find some other people to hang out with and hang around as an outlet.
• 26:57
  Speaker 1: You've done a better job than I have with that.
• 26:58
  Speaker 1: You know what I mean.
• 26:58
  Speaker 1: You, just you have, and that's the difference in taylor and i's personalities.
• 27:01
  Speaker 1: But I can remember growing up too with dad and I never asked him this, but I was like that dude just works, he worked or he fed the horses one of the two, that's it.
• 27:13
  Speaker 1: And I'm like whoa, you know, where's the extracurricular stuff, where the other people are around, you know, and it's trying to figure out that balance.
• 27:23
  Speaker 1: But I think in our business is those five people you know, besides our family, they really need to be outside of the business.
• 27:32
  Speaker 2: Yes, and a lot of times I think, especially in our profession, the way that it is, they're more of a phone call you talk to and, yeah, uh, you relate to and you'll meet up with every now and then, or you're, they're friends that are in a um call it, a like of our dealer meeting groups or anything else of going through that you find like-minded people and it's very important to know because of my friend group I have some friends that are still from high school, but they're not the ones I sit and talk to in business about.
• 28:10
  Speaker 2: No, they're, they're more of a hand.
• 28:12
  Speaker 2: So you gotta know of, hey, the ones I spend all the time with, and it's even, a lot of times, the people that you work with.
• 28:19
  Speaker 2: Yes, you can see how they've changed throughout the years, just as you move up, as business evolves.
• 28:25
  Speaker 2: It's okay.
• 28:25
  Speaker 2: It's not like you're just stiff arming them, pushing them away.
• 28:28
  Speaker 2: So know that, matt, hit the nail on the head pruning is necessary to grow it.
• 28:34
  Speaker 2: Pruning is necessary to grow.
• 28:34
  Speaker 2: It is.
• 28:35
  Speaker 2: Pruning is necessary to grow in the correct pruning, not just doing cutting for no reason.
• 28:39
  Speaker 2: That's right, that's right.
• 28:40
  Speaker 1: And if you're like okay, I hear you, matt, where do I go?
• 28:44
  Speaker 1: Where do I find these people?
• 28:45
  Speaker 1: I am telling you, there is business groups after business groups and I promise you I don't care if you take an electrician and an HVAC person and a supplier and somebody else, they all have the same issues.
• 28:58
  Speaker 1: Remember, the business is people, process, product.
• 29:04
  Speaker 1: That's it.
• 29:05
  Speaker 1: The only thing that changes from industry to industry is product.
• 29:08
  Speaker 1: You always have people in processes, okay, you always have HR, you always have advertising.
• 29:13
  Speaker 1: You always have people that are no-show.
• 29:15
  Speaker 1: So you don't have to find somebody that is a plumber just like you.
• 29:19
  Speaker 1: They could be an electrician, they could be in the car business.
• 29:22
  Speaker 1: So where do you find those people?
• 29:24
  Speaker 1: If you look at your local chamber, they have professional night out, they have luncheons, there's rotary clubs out there.
• 29:31
  Speaker 1: There's all of those things where you have business, like-minded people that you could talk to about that stuff, and it won't infect your internal business.
• 29:40
  Speaker 1: You just got to open your eyes and you got to make time for it.
• 29:44
  Speaker 1: We talked a couple episodes about that, about just making time.
• 29:47
  Speaker 1: So that here's what I want to drive home with you, because this man, this, this took me forever, like I just telling you.
• 29:53
  Speaker 1: I've been back in the dealership for over 20 years now and until about the past five years, I never did this.
• 29:59
  Speaker 1: Yes, I thought it was stupid people that did this.
• 30:01
  Speaker 1: Ok, man, was I wrong of people that actually took the time to go to lunch with another business person or go to this professional event Because I was like I don't have time, I don't have time, I don't have time, my team needs me.
• 30:12
  Speaker 1: I got to be here, I got to be present.
• 30:13
  Speaker 1: I don't have time.
• 30:16
  Speaker 1: That was ignorant on my part, because why was it?
• 30:19
  Speaker 1: I was not taking the time to be the best version of myself for my employees.
• 30:25
  Speaker 1: Yes, and the only way you can be the best version of yourself is you have to have some resets and you have to get filled up if you want to be able to pour into anybody else.
• 30:37
  Speaker 2: You know we probably get that a lot uh, my uncle that we need to have on the show just because he's about a wild card and he's funny, of everything else.
• 30:43
  Speaker 2: But he does so good though of that outreach of going to rotary, going to professional night out, anything else in there, so that's something that we've really started to notice over the last couple of years of huh.
• 30:57
  Speaker 2: That makes sense.
• 30:58
  Speaker 2: That's why he's done that network.
• 31:00
  Speaker 1: I think if we take our Uncle Tommy we're talking about, he's done really good there.
• 31:04
  Speaker 1: I think if you take our Uncle Andy, you know you can talk to tons of people.
• 31:08
  Speaker 1: And he was at those events and he was still working hard.
• 31:11
  Speaker 1: He was on ADA and involved.
• 31:11
  Speaker 1: And he was at those events and he was still working hard, he was on ADA and involved.
• 31:14
  Speaker 1: So we are looking at our family from the previous generation and grabbing the strengths from each one of those, trying to learn how do we cultivate the best version of ourself for our business.
• 31:26
  Speaker 1: Yes, you know, and that's taking time and this podcast has helped that because we step back for one hour a week.
• 31:32
  Speaker 1: Yep, we reflect on that and we talk about it and it's no different to the gym.
• 31:38
  Speaker 1: We talked about the gym and forever on the gym there was this stigma and I don't even know how this happened, but there was this stigma that do not go to the gym at work.
• 31:49
  Speaker 1: While you're at work, yeah, if it's work hours, don't go to the gym.
• 31:52
  Speaker 1: It was like crickets there and I'm like if you're on your lunch break, go to the gym.
• 31:57
  Speaker 1: Oh, if you ate your lunch sitting at your desk and you got a break at three o'clock.
• 32:02
  Speaker 1: Go to the gym.
• 32:03
  Speaker 1: Be a better version of yourself.
• 32:04
  Speaker 1: But that took us doing that, inviting people over showing them.
• 32:08
  Speaker 1: It was okay, you know, so now we see a whole lot more intrigued there and just teaching people that are seeing us a better balance yeah, that's been big growth um letting the team know and it's giving them more leash with boundaries.
• 32:26
  Speaker 1: Yeah, really helping them grow there, yeah, that's big you know, I think too we've we've talked a lot about this, so this will take a ton of time.
• 32:33
  Speaker 1: To talk about our culture, yep, you know, it's always been ingrained into us.
• 32:37
  Speaker 1: But you know, culture is a big one.
• 32:39
  Speaker 1: Culture is a big one and, as leaders, we start the culture.
• 32:44
  Speaker 1: We start the culture.
• 32:45
  Speaker 1: It's a reflection of our leadership and then a reflection on how often do we check in on that, and it's a nonstop.
• 32:54
  Speaker 2: It's nonstop and what continues to fuel that is.
• 32:58
  Speaker 2: I love every vendor, every outside, and then I really love whenever people from-.
• 33:03
  Speaker 1: Hang on, stop Vendors.
• 33:06
  Speaker 2: Mm-hmm.
• 33:07
  Speaker 1: Huh.
• 33:07
  Speaker 1: So when vendors come in, you actually treat them with respect and they see the culture just like an employee.
• 33:15
  Speaker 2: Yeah, because what?
• 33:16
  Speaker 2: I saw this the other day and it really really hit home.
• 33:20
  Speaker 2: You know any vendors that walk into your business are really stepping outside of their comfort zone to come and sell their product or business.
• 33:32
  Speaker 2: If you have the time, at least hear them out and be cordial to them.
• 33:37
  Speaker 2: I'm not saying go to lunch and everything else, but don't be the guy that just cusses them and kicks them out the front door because you know what they're selling you a product.
• 33:49
  Speaker 2: But what happens whenever they turn around and they need your service?
• 33:53
  Speaker 2: Are they going to come to you after you treated them that way?
• 33:56
  Speaker 2: No way, no way.
• 33:58
  Speaker 1: You ready for a bonus.
• 33:59
  Speaker 1: Guess where those vendors go?
• 34:02
  Speaker 1: They're in every other dealership and where they start.
• 34:06
  Speaker 1: And so do you think the other employees, the technicians or the sales people or the managers, talk to them.
• 34:12
  Speaker 1: So then the hey guys here this is a super high level secret for you.
• 34:18
  Speaker 1: Okay, on vendors and I love doing this with the tool guy Okay, cause you got to think about this If you have technicians, they hang out in that tool truck.
• 34:27
  Speaker 1: Oh yeah, they hang out in the tool truck.
• 34:30
  Speaker 1: So, and if the technician has a bad day, they're in there venting, dumping all their garbage to the tool person.
• 34:37
  Speaker 1: Yes, all right.
• 34:38
  Speaker 1: So if we take really good care of the tool person and a technician is spilling their guts somewhere else, they just maybe will recruit for you and say you ought to go see those guys at Lewis.
• 34:50
  Speaker 1: Every time I'm in there, those guys are in a great mood, they're having a great time.
• 34:54
  Speaker 2: So they're your number one recruiters.
• 34:56
  Speaker 2: I was talking to one of them and he'll talk to a wall but pretty big picture guy going through, and he was talking to me and he has a really big dealer group that is out of Dallas, okay Well-established, been there for a long time, has plenty of nice dealerships, really nice dealerships.
• 35:18
  Speaker 2: And so he was in there the other day and he's like, oh gosh, and we're nice to him, so he loves talking to us and going, and he's like they were talking about their new dealership they just built and how nice it was and they had a green piano in the front of it playing music.
• 35:35
  Speaker 2: He said no, no, no, you've got to see Lewis' stuff.
• 35:38
  Speaker 2: The owner of their company was like no, you've got to see Lewis' stuff If you want to see training, caring about employees.
• 35:46
  Speaker 2: They're like no, we care about our employees.
• 35:48
  Speaker 2: They're like, no, you don't Hold on.
• 35:53
  Speaker 2: And so they pulled up one of our sales meetings of the party going through there, yes, and it tore the owner up and then he was like no, that's not even the best.
• 35:57
  Speaker 2: Look at their gym with.
• 35:58
  Speaker 2: She's like, oh, my gosh.
• 36:01
  Speaker 2: He said this is for their employees.
• 36:04
  Speaker 2: He said, yes, he's like god, I was thinking this whole time you needed to make the dealership nice for the customers, which ours is very nice as a customers.
• 36:12
  Speaker 2: But we poured more into our employees because we cared about our internal employee and to hear that a vendor that you normally kicking out shoe shoe was in a complete different state.
• 36:23
  Speaker 2: They had pulled up our Instagram.
• 36:25
  Speaker 2: We're now following it for content, looking at because we had showed them and walked them through.
• 36:31
  Speaker 1: I love that.
• 36:32
  Speaker 1: I love that we invite as many people as possible, and if you're listening to this and you want to come to one of our sales meetings, it's either Monday or Friday at 915.
• 36:41
  Speaker 1: You can come.
• 36:41
  Speaker 1: It's in the three-story black building.
• 36:43
  Speaker 1: There's a plug for you.
• 36:44
  Speaker 1: Let's go to the next part, about moving on from your mistakes.
• 36:48
  Speaker 1: So don't just sit there.
• 36:49
  Speaker 1: You know what I mean.
• 36:50
  Speaker 1: So don't just sit there.
• 36:50
  Speaker 1: You know what I mean.
• 36:51
  Speaker 1: Don't just sit there and sulk about it.
• 36:53
  Speaker 1: Pick yourself back up.
• 36:54
  Speaker 1: Why?
• 36:55
  Speaker 1: Because your team's looking at you.
• 36:57
  Speaker 1: I got 300 people looking at me sitting having a pity party, waiting for me to give them direction on how we're going to respond to this issue.
• 37:13
  Speaker 2: That's so right, so real of don't hammer down on it.
• 37:14
  Speaker 2: Handle the situation, address it, realize if it needs to either be moved on with, like you need to dismiss the person and then, if there's the opportunity, help them grow.
• 37:25
  Speaker 2: Absolutely Say this is where we messed up.
• 37:27
  Speaker 2: But I want to show you this different route to be able to move forward.
• 37:30
  Speaker 2: Use that as a teaching opportunity to handle the situation and then grow from it.
• 37:36
  Speaker 1: So you know, sometimes that'll happen internally when something happens.
• 37:42
  Speaker 1: We had a customer come in and it's happened more than once but a customer come in that maybe wasn't all there, let me say this just politically yeah, absolutely Wasn't all there.
• 37:50
  Speaker 1: Let me say this, just yeah, absolutely wasn't all there and just was just kind of off the rocker, yep, hollering, yelling, cussing this, and that we're trying to isolate them, get them back outside.
• 38:01
  Speaker 1: We don't even they weren't even a customer of ours, and but that's a disruption, it is, it's a disruption.
• 38:08
  Speaker 1: So your first thing you do is try to isolate it.
• 38:11
  Speaker 1: I'm not sitting there handling on the showroom.
• 38:13
  Speaker 1: I'm trying to walk outside with them, okay, where everybody else can't hear.
• 38:16
  Speaker 1: I'm not hiding it from anybody, but it's not theirs to deal with.
• 38:20
  Speaker 1: And then I isolate that, get it move on.
• 38:24
  Speaker 1: But then I go back and I look to see okay, what's the team doing?
• 38:27
  Speaker 1: Are they still hiding around going?
• 38:29
  Speaker 1: Oh man, how did Matt handle that?
• 38:30
  Speaker 1: What went on going?
• 38:33
  Speaker 1: Oh man, how'd matt handle that?
• 38:34
  Speaker 1: What went on?
• 38:34
  Speaker 1: So on and so forth.
• 38:34
  Speaker 1: So sometimes you got to have a re-jump start too, you do, to get your team back going.
• 38:36
  Speaker 1: You know what I mean.
• 38:37
  Speaker 1: So we're not sitting there dwelling on that, okay.
• 38:39
  Speaker 1: So then we had this happen yesterday too.
• 38:41
  Speaker 1: Um, you know, unfortunately there was a a situation that was happening here in town.
• 38:47
  Speaker 1: Luckily it was isolated and it wasn't a real deal on a threat, but but obviously everybody was concerned.
• 38:54
  Speaker 1: I was concerned as well.
• 38:55
  Speaker 1: But then, once we figured out that it wasn't a real threat, then it's getting everybody back together and getting them back on track.
• 39:02
  Speaker 1: That's what a real leader does.
• 39:03
  Speaker 1: You don't just sit there I know we're talking about mistakes here, but mistakes are the same way Don't just sit there, figure it out, address it and then move on, then move on.
• 39:13
  Speaker 1: So the next part, about decision fatigue.
• 39:15
  Speaker 1: I'm going to relate this one really easy.
• 39:18
  Speaker 1: Everybody will have decision fatigue, especially as a leader, and there's days that like mentally, you just have made so many decisions.
• 39:30
  Speaker 1: The only way to get over decision fatigue is taking time for yourself to reset.
• 39:34
  Speaker 1: Yes, I can't tell you how many times I have had decision fatigue overload I'm adding a word there overload and I still had half the day left.
• 39:44
  Speaker 1: And if I'll just go and work out for 45 minutes, 30 minutes an hour, whatever it is, I can completely reset and be a new version of myself for the second half of the day.
• 39:56
  Speaker 2: If not, it's like you're swimming and you have ankle weights around and you're drowning and you're trying to move forward and you're like everyone's watching me and I got to keep doing this, but just take a break and step back.
• 40:12
  Speaker 1: Yeah, take a break and step back, because whenever you come back in, you're 100% better and ready to rock, can I tell you, naturally that's not going to happen, because naturally, a type A personality, a leader, entrepreneur, you got to the level you got to because you just grind.
• 40:26
  Speaker 1: You know what I mean.
• 40:28
  Speaker 1: You just work and you grind and you're like, no, I've got to keep pushing through.
• 40:32
  Speaker 1: I'm almost through, I.
• 40:32
  Speaker 1: You grind and you're like, no, I gotta keep pushing through.
• 40:34
  Speaker 1: I'm almost through.
• 40:34
  Speaker 1: I'm almost through.
• 40:34
  Speaker 1: The first time you'll trust this and for me I've tried.
• 40:38
  Speaker 1: Let me just tell you this I've tried to just go to lunch and eat and and that doesn't.
• 40:44
  Speaker 1: I'm not gonna get my soapbox here, but it doesn't work for me because I just sit there and I usually eat crap anyways.
• 40:49
  Speaker 1: When I'm, you know sure, I'm stressed out and then I come back and then I just feel like crap.
• 40:54
  Speaker 1: So I need something to stress my mind, my brain, to reset me.
• 41:00
  Speaker 1: And once you'll trust into that and realize, yeah, you took an hour out of your day, but then all of a sudden, the next four hours are at a 10x on what they would have been if you would have just kept trying to push through.
• 41:10
  Speaker 1: And that's something I've learned later on in my career and it's beneficial for everybody.
• 41:17
  Speaker 1: You've got to remember I don't care if you have five employees, 50 employees or 500 employees.
• 41:21
  Speaker 1: You've got to think about the multiplication factor and you're the leader and you're setting the pace for the rest of the team.
• 41:28
  Speaker 1: So, even if you have to take an hour out of your day to reset, to bring a better version of you, then you're going to get a multiplication factor of a 5, a 50, a 500 because of a better version and how you're rising the tide up.
• 41:42
  Speaker 2: Yes, and going back to previously, what we have learned.
• 41:45
  Speaker 2: That is something I've learned.
• 41:46
  Speaker 2: I know you've learned, shelby, because we were never short of hard work.
• 41:49
  Speaker 2: Never, because we were never short of hard work, never we always could work so hard.
• 41:55
  Speaker 2: But let me tell you there's a certain point in your career of building that if you want to progress, if you want to move forward, you have to learn how to do the other to step back, switch, pivot, move forward, take a break, recharge, move forward and can't just keep running your head through the wall.
• 42:15
  Speaker 2: That's so good, yeah, that's so.
• 42:16
  Speaker 2: We have learned that and it's probably come from you and thank you for, uh, obviously, being an older brother and going through it, but it just, and I love it because of being in our, our circle of the three brothers.
• 42:31
  Speaker 2: Matt may may have taken longer to learn that, but it was passed to Shelby and then to me.
• 42:38
  Speaker 2: So whenever it was passed quicker to me, better new ideas may come from me, may come from Shelby, that open up, that allow Matt to be able to see something he didn't before.
• 42:49
  Speaker 2: So that circle of influence, as you share with each other, just continues to grow.
• 42:55
  Speaker 1: I think that's a good point.
• 42:56
  Speaker 1: I'm sitting here thinking about when you're saying that, because you know our goal is to take wherever our dad and our uncles, wherever they grew it to, ok, so we have a higher starting point than they did.
• 43:08
  Speaker 1: You know their goal is for us to be more successful than they were, absolutely.
• 43:12
  Speaker 1: So we need to start at where they were and then go, and then I hope the next generation, we start them at a whole higher level and then they're more if we've done our job, if they're more successful than us.
• 43:22
  Speaker 1: That's what you'd want.
• 43:23
  Speaker 1: It's not a competition yes, it's.
• 43:25
  Speaker 1: It's.
• 43:25
  Speaker 1: How do you do that?
• 43:26
  Speaker 1: So I can remember, as you're saying that, this is flashback going in my, in my brain.
• 43:30
  Speaker 1: I can remember looking at the success of that and talking to him and I'm just then getting into a gm role at the ford building and I can remember him telling me that he was just worn out and he was just.
• 43:45
  Speaker 1: He was just tired and he had just been grinding for so long and worn out.
• 43:50
  Speaker 1: And I'm thinking, okay, okay, like yeah, dad, you, you've it and I'm not.
• 43:54
  Speaker 1: My dad's a very hard worker.
• 43:56
  Speaker 1: Yeah, um, but I'm like, how do I balance that?
• 43:59
  Speaker 1: How do I?
• 44:01
  Speaker 1: And I don't mean about more time off, but how do I balance more of still pushing, still moving the mark, but allowing my body to reset or allowing my mind to reset?
• 44:13
  Speaker 1: Yeah, and, and I think you've got to give up something to get something.
• 44:17
  Speaker 1: So I got to give up, you know, that hour of the day to be able to get a better version of myself.
• 44:22
  Speaker 1: You know I got to be able to do this or do that.
• 44:25
  Speaker 1: So that's what we worked through.
• 44:26
  Speaker 1: It took me longer, didn't take Shelby as long, and then, in the gap, even got less with you.
• 44:32
  Speaker 1: So I think that that's how it goes down through there.
• 44:35
  Speaker 2: So I think that's really good, yeah, and important to remember, because I see a lot of people that talk about they get stuck in grandpa did this, dad did this, brother did this and it was this x amount of time.
• 44:47
  Speaker 2: Show that you're worthy and you're working hard and you're wanting to contribute and everything else, and know that sometimes it's pivots and it moves in different directions, but you're still working together I think so, and I think really, grandfather or dad, it would be more proud if they see that you took it to a different level.
• 45:08
  Speaker 1: That's what it's about.
• 45:09
  Speaker 1: You know they don't like if you really peel back the layers.
• 45:12
  Speaker 1: They don't want to see you do the exact same heartache as them.
• 45:16
  Speaker 1: They're like no, no, learn from my stuff and move to the next level.
• 45:19
  Speaker 1: You know so.
• 45:21
  Speaker 1: Just just remember that.
• 45:22
  Speaker 1: Hey, we got a little myth buster section here.
• 45:24
  Speaker 1: We got all right.
• 45:24
  Speaker 1: This is a great one for today's topic.
• 45:26
  Speaker 1: Great leaders always know where they're going.
• 45:33
  Speaker 2: They may make it seem like they do.
• 45:35
  Speaker 1: Great leaders always know where they're going.
• 45:39
  Speaker 1: No, I'm going to say a lot of leaders act like it, yes, act like it, but that's not the truth.
• 45:52
  Speaker 1: No, I think that most leaders move forward with clarity, but they're still uncertain and I've been there.
• 46:02
  Speaker 1: It's hey, I'm clear that this is where we want to go.
• 46:06
  Speaker 1: I'm confident that this is the right way to get there.
• 46:10
  Speaker 1: But in the back of my mind, I still have some, some uncertainty of will this actually play out like we discussed?
• 46:16
  Speaker 1: You know, we talked about that plenty of times.
• 46:19
  Speaker 1: Oh yeah, on this person in this office or this flow of traffic or this process, and then it's like taylor.
• 46:27
  Speaker 1: We gotta re-look at this.
• 46:28
  Speaker 1: Remember?
• 46:28
  Speaker 1: We were thinking this was gonna be smooth.
• 46:30
  Speaker 1: This is causing more work.
• 46:31
  Speaker 1: Yes, you know, you know.
• 46:34
  Speaker 1: So that's busted, it's busted, it's busted for sure.
• 46:38
  Speaker 2: Hey, diving into last segment there, exciting the next year of leadership, what will be required?
• 46:45
  Speaker 2: So forward-looking, pivot, what leaders and businesses need to prioritize in the year ahead?
• 46:52
  Speaker 1: I think it's really important.
• 46:53
  Speaker 1: I'm going to talk where a lot of leaders get hung up Yep, and that's the news.
• 47:00
  Speaker 1: Mm-hmm, okay, I know you probably didn't think that's where I was going, but they listen to the news and the tariffs and whoever's in office and regulations and this and that, and people ask me that all the time what are you going to do about the tariffs?
• 47:15
  Speaker 1: What are you going to do about this?
• 47:16
  Speaker 1: What are you going to do about that?
• 47:17
  Speaker 1: Now, I listen to the news more than you do.
• 47:20
  Speaker 1: Yes, okay, and that comes a little bit with age.
• 47:22
  Speaker 1: I listen to the news enough to know what's going on.
• 47:26
  Speaker 1: Yes, but not too much that it consumes me.
• 47:29
  Speaker 1: Okay, because I can't change the tariffs, and whether the tariffs come in at zero or 300 percent, we still got to put our boots on and go to work.
• 47:40
  Speaker 1: Yep, you know what I mean.
• 47:41
  Speaker 1: And there's nothing we can do in our industry.
• 47:43
  Speaker 1: We can't make a mass buy to protect or hedge our bet against that.
• 47:49
  Speaker 1: So I don't need to spend any time there, okay.
• 47:52
  Speaker 1: Where I do need to spend time is developing our team, looking for opportunities and ready to pivot if that does come up.
• 48:00
  Speaker 1: You know when it does come up.
• 48:01
  Speaker 1: So I think leaders need to make sure that you know what's going on in your industry, but don't get consumed with things that you do not have control over.
• 48:11
  Speaker 1: So that would be one of my encouragements, because the tariffs is a big deal that's coming up.
• 48:16
  Speaker 1: But hey, we sold cars when Democrats are in office.
• 48:18
  Speaker 1: We sold cars when Republicans were in office.
• 48:21
  Speaker 1: We sold cars when people loved the president, when they didn't like the president, when we had tariffs.
• 48:26
  Speaker 1: When we didn't have tariffs, we still sold cars.
• 48:28
  Speaker 1: You know what I mean.
• 48:30
  Speaker 1: We sold cars when gas was $7 a gallon and when it was 35 cents a gallon, we still sold cars.
• 48:35
  Speaker 1: Yes, you know.
• 48:36
  Speaker 1: So the sky's not falling?
• 48:38
  Speaker 1: Nope, you got to be ready to pivot.
• 48:40
  Speaker 1: Yes, all right.
• 48:41
  Speaker 1: And then just move on, absolutely Just move on.
• 48:43
  Speaker 2: Absolutely.
• 48:44
  Speaker 2: I've gone through that.
• 48:45
  Speaker 2: That's so good Pivot.
• 48:47
  Speaker 2: Move on, be knowledgeable.
• 48:50
  Speaker 2: Like Matt said, be knowledgeable, have situational awareness, but don't park on something that A you can't control and B has nothing to really do with you.
• 49:04
  Speaker 2: So many people get hung up in things that have nothing to do with their business and they park there.
• 49:10
  Speaker 2: But don't do that.
• 49:17
  Speaker 1: Hey, I'll tell you another thing, and this is an area I've grown.
• 49:19
  Speaker 1: I'm going to tell you about another podcast I just listened to and it resonated with me with what this guy said really successful, uh, you know, manager over multiple dealerships down in Texas.
• 49:24
  Speaker 1: But one of the things I took a lot of pride in and it actually got in my way is I had a lot of pride that we had never hired a manager outside of our dealership.
• 49:35
  Speaker 1: We had always grown managers from within and at the surface level.
• 49:40
  Speaker 1: That sounds amazing.
• 49:41
  Speaker 1: It really does.
• 49:42
  Speaker 1: I mean the culture that created.
• 49:44
  Speaker 1: Well, in fact, when we listed our first outside manager job, our amount of applicants, they're like y'all never have a management job available ever.
• 49:53
  Speaker 1: So I've been telling you for 15 years I never hired a manager outside of the outside of the dealership.
• 50:00
  Speaker 1: we always grown from within yes however, what that cost us is there were a lot of talented people out there that brought experience to the table that we didn't have.
• 50:10
  Speaker 1: We weren't exposed to yep, so I've learned as a leader and I'll continue to look at that.
• 50:14
  Speaker 1: We always want to first look.
• 50:14
  Speaker 1: That we didn't have.
• 50:14
  Speaker 1: We weren't exposed to yep, so I've learned as a leader and I'll continue to look at that.
• 50:16
  Speaker 1: We always want to first look.
• 50:17
  Speaker 1: If we have somebody internally that can grow, that's number one and it'll trump anything else.
• 50:22
  Speaker 1: Yep, but we have grown so much by bringing in some leaders that had great experience.
• 50:27
  Speaker 1: They got to fit our culture.
• 50:28
  Speaker 1: Yeah, okay, we're not going to compromise.
• 50:30
  Speaker 1: There got to fit our culture, our ethics, but they've really helped us grow.
• 50:34
  Speaker 1: They have.
• 50:35
  Speaker 1: And so this guy I was listening to again runs multiple dealerships down in Texas.
• 50:39
  Speaker 1: They were under the culture that they lived in their own bubble and they wouldn't look outside at other business models in the way they did it, and these are highly successful businesses.
• 50:51
  Speaker 1: But now he's been elevated up to even another, another position, and they're like why not?
• 50:57
  Speaker 1: So he's now challenging that and it's opening the doors to his eyes of what other dealerships do in other organizations.
• 51:05
  Speaker 1: And now management is behind him on that, like he's keeping his core, his core, yep, but then he's seeing what else is going on outside of his business.
• 51:14
  Speaker 1: So that's what I would encourage dealers to be able to talk about and look in the year ahead as well.
• 51:21
  Speaker 2: Challenge yourselves and help yourself improve.
• 51:24
  Speaker 2: In that, that's really big there, hey.
• 51:26
  Speaker 2: Next episode rolling out, it's going to be a whole new episode, episode 53, season two.
• 51:35
  Speaker 2: We have all sorts of things coming at you this next round we really do, and I know we've talked about it.
• 51:42
  Speaker 1: But one of our goals for season two is keep bringing you relevant information.
• 51:45
  Speaker 1: Yes, uh, challenge you as leaders.
• 51:48
  Speaker 1: We'll crank up the intensity, some calling you out so when you're on the other side of it.
• 51:52
  Speaker 1: Why?
• 51:53
  Speaker 1: Because we want to help you.
• 51:54
  Speaker 1: Sure, that's sure, that's it.
• 51:55
  Speaker 1: You know there's, there's no charge.
• 51:57
  Speaker 1: This is free, 99, absolutely okay.
• 51:59
  Speaker 1: But then the other part is bringing local business leaders on yep so we can talk about their story, we can talk about their success, and uh also keeps it fresh.
• 52:08
  Speaker 1: So you're not just listening to the three of us every single week.
• 52:11
  Speaker 1: We appreciate you tuning back in, but we're going to bring you some fresh perspectives there as well as well.
• 52:16
  Speaker 1: So we're looking forward to season two, which will kick off next week.
• 52:19
  Speaker 1: All right, let's talk about our question, our frequently asked questions, right here.
• 52:23
  Speaker 1: Why is it important and I'll let you answer this first why is it important to keep the same employees versus just getting someone else?
• 52:33
  Speaker 2: oh, there's so many different sides to this.
• 52:35
  Speaker 2: There's there's a management level, there's the customer aspect, but it just I feel like it's so important.
• 52:45
  Speaker 2: The number one thing that I will say is you can have that clear expectation that I know I can fall back on of.
• 52:53
  Speaker 2: I know I have to watch it, but I know, within realm, with inspect, it will operate this this way.
• 53:01
  Speaker 2: With having said person in this spot, I know what it's going to do and I can manage off of that I, I couldn't agree more there.
• 53:11
  Speaker 1: Um, I think the other parts you really look at from retention, especially retention especially if you're in the retail of high ticket items Yep, okay, and these can be services as well is customers like doing business with people that they know, they like and they trust.
• 53:28
  Speaker 1: And we hear it time and time again oh, I've used so-and-so down in service.
• 53:34
  Speaker 1: They've always helped me with my cars for the past 10 years.
• 53:36
  Speaker 1: Oh, yes, they like coming back where there's a familiar face.
• 53:40
  Speaker 1: It's like the old sitcom Cheers where you go where everybody knows your name.
• 53:44
  Speaker 1: They probably didn't have the best food or the best beer or whatever else, but everybody knew them and it made them feel comfortable.
• 53:50
  Speaker 1: So they come into service and they're like yeah, so-and-so has never led me astray.
• 53:53
  Speaker 1: They've always kept me up to date.
• 53:55
  Speaker 1: Oh, salesperson X sold me a car, my grandparents a car, my kids a car.
• 53:59
  Speaker 1: We know them, we like them and we trust them.
• 54:02
  Speaker 1: You know this finance manager helped us sign our paperwork, has five cars we've bought.
• 54:11
  Speaker 1: So that retention helps create customer loyalty.
• 54:13
  Speaker 1: And then not only that, but we went over a couple episodes ago.
• 54:16
  Speaker 1: You know what percentage was it of employees left because of bad leadership?
• 54:20
  Speaker 1: It was 70 or 75.
• 54:22
  Speaker 1: I think it was 75.
• 54:24
  Speaker 1: 75.
• 54:25
  Speaker 1: Tell them the number.
• 54:26
  Speaker 1: We got to pause on this for a second.
• 54:27
  Speaker 1: We just hired a sales professional that had worked for a competitor we won't say the name of the competitor Air locally, yeah, air locally, yeah.
• 54:35
  Speaker 1: And they told us and they were very patient, yeah, my hat's off to them yeah, how many managers had they had?
• 54:40
  Speaker 1: And tell them the timeline.
• 54:42
  Speaker 1: And tell them how many managers.
• 54:43
  Speaker 1: So it had been a year.
• 54:46
  Speaker 2: One year and they had talked with us some over here and we had encouraged them to come over, but an employee because, just like you, working anywhere, yep, had been there for three years and they're like, no, I think I'm gonna stay here, we're gonna keep going.
• 55:01
  Speaker 2: Because it was familiar, sure, and they wanted to keep working to it.
• 55:03
  Speaker 2: Over a year's time, they had 14 managers 14 managers come in and out of the store, everywhere else.
• 55:15
  Speaker 2: They said finally I didn't know the name of my manager, more or less what he wanted me to do, so he'd come on board there.
• 55:23
  Speaker 2: That's what happens, though.
• 55:25
  Speaker 2: Without the correct culture, the correct leadership, everything else in there, you say, oh, that would never happen to me, it it?
• 55:35
  Speaker 1: happens fast.
• 55:36
  Speaker 1: So that's the value, right there, of working on retention, and there's some times that you need to move on.
• 55:43
  Speaker 1: But y'all heard us talk about this another episode and if you didn't, I'll give you the tips real quick.
• 55:48
  Speaker 1: Before you part ways with somebody, you have to answer these questions yourself.
• 55:54
  Speaker 1: Not did HR, not did a platform manager, not did somebody else but yourself?
• 56:00
  Speaker 1: Did you give them the time, the tools and the training necessary to succeed?
• 56:06
  Speaker 1: Not throw an employee handbook at them, not sign them up for an online course.
• 56:11
  Speaker 1: Did you personally give them the time, tools and training necessary to succeed?
• 56:16
  Speaker 1: You take that.
• 56:18
  Speaker 1: You take our culture and how we care about people.
• 56:20
  Speaker 1: That's why we have the lowest turnover in the automotive industry.
• 56:24
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I don't know how many years you'd have to go back to find 14 manager turnover positions in our business.
• 56:31
  Speaker 1: Corporate-wise, yes, and that happened in one year at one store.
• 56:36
  Speaker 2: Yes, yeah, and unfortunately that's what happens whenever you pull your hand off.
• 56:40
  Speaker 2: It really is Something else on there.
• 56:42
  Speaker 1: It really is.
• 56:43
  Speaker 1: That's good stuff.
• 56:43
  Speaker 1: Hey, thanks for joining in with us today to wrap up this first year of Crossroad Conversations with the Lewis Brothers.
• 56:49
  Speaker 2: Yep.
• 56:50
  Speaker 1: As always, go to lewissuperstorecom, check out all of our inventory there.
• 56:54
  Speaker 1: And, hey, if you like this podcast, give it a like, give it a comment, share it.
• 56:59
  Speaker 1: We appreciate that.
• 57:00
  Speaker 1: You can find this episode and many more at crossroadconversationpodcastcom or wherever you get your podcast.
• 57:07
  Speaker 1: Hey, thanks for joining us today and we hope you enjoyed this episode.
• 57:13
  Speaker 1: Make sure to give it a like, share it with your friends and family.
• 57:15
  Speaker 1: Visit our website and send us some questions.
• 57:18
  Speaker 1: We want to know what you'd like to hear, who you'd like to hear from and what you want to see, or maybe even some questions for us to answer about either the automotive industry or just business in general.